Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Ya the new Traeger do also. Mine is about 4-5 years old now. It’s still in great shape so I’m having a hard time trying to figure out how to explain to the Mrs that I need a new one.

 

If it works for you, just keep using it.
Unless you do an @uhplifted

 

Nah mine ain’t sploded to date.

 

He just took ‘burn in’ a little too literally.

 

Tried and failed at my first Weber kettle smoke with ribs. Did the 2-2-1 method with the temp around 250-260. They were pretty damn tough to eat. Also could not remove the membrane as it was ridiculous to get off the ribs

 

where did you have the coals?

 

Tough? How’d they look?

I’ve found ribs to be tough (undercooked) or dry (over cooked).

Before you pulled the ribs off the grill did the meat pull away from the tips of the bone? Like there was no bone showing when they went on raw and at the end of the cook there was some bone showing.

Honestly I have cooked dozens of racks of ribs and had a handful of bad cooks. Every rib rack is different but you get a feel for the cook the more you do it.

Also don’t use the Weber kettle lid thermo as a guide. Get an after market thermometer that you can place at the grill level, it’ll be much more accurate.

On my kettle I like about 300f+
on the lid temp which is about 250f at grill level.

Also look into some kind of heat sink. I use bricks but a tub of water works too. Gets rid of huge temp swings.

Also I love my kettle.

 

What everyone else said about temps. The membrane can be a tricky bitch. Best way I’ve found is to slip a butter knife under the corner, then use a paper towel to grab/hold it with and simply pull it slowly off.

 

finished up a nice brisket this weekend

 

Banker on one side of the grill where the two wheels are and meat opposite side

 

There was no bone showing anywhere when I pulled them off. I’m assuming my grill temp was too low then as I had it pretty steady around 250 degrees according to the grill thermometer. I used cast iron with water for the heat sink. I’m assuming they were undercooked still as they were definitely not dry

 

Like everyone else has already stated, those grill/smoker mounted thermometers are really just for looks.

 

What after market thermometers are recommended?

 

Very true, I am changing my gauges out to something I can recalibrate at times and know they are always correct.

 

There are several in the "Products discussed..." section below.

 

For long cooks I use a ThremPro, I forget the model. Two probes, remote monitoring. For most grilling and shorter smokes I use a ThermPop instant read.

 

Uni-Dusted last night (fairly heavy) boneless ribs. About to hit the grill.

 

Were super!! My plated (all really) pics suck, but at least I got one this time.

 

Everyone else cooking with this unicorn dust has me jealous. It's a Choice ribeye, but it looked decent, was cut thick, and was on sale.

(Phone oversaturated the pic)


Managed to find a little unicorn dust that didn't get mailed out .



Sitting in the fridge now. Hoping to get it grilled tomorrow.

 

Makes me want a nice thick ribeye.